New World, New War
by Bug-Eyed Earl
Summary: A samll group of Autobots crash on a strange planet and become embroiled in the inhabitants' own war. But can they really trust their supposed new allies?


CHAPTER 1

Captain's personal log- Mission # 13127 Day 1

Nightbeat, CO, wrote:

Once we set our minds to it, barring Decepticon interference, it was only a matter of time before the first interstellar ship was built by human scientists with our help. Despite the new sciences they had to learn to aid us in this project (which Prime deemed absolutely necessary- you don't throw a small child the keys to a car and expect them to understand its workings, let alone use it properly), the humans progressed very quickly. And two days ago, the first of many Terran craft, _The Odyssey_, was launched from Cape Canaveral. It was tradition alone that mandated that location; spirits were high among both of our races, and Florida was chosen to fully illustrate that this was the next step in the evolution of mankind's progression to the stars.

Which is why the disaster is all the more disheartening.

The crew were the best and the brightest the various worldwide space agencies had to offer. Colonel Matt Hunter of the USAF led the expedition. Galen Braxis, who worked closest with the Autobots in making Cybertronian technology into something humans could operate. Chances are if you're human or a Transformer who watches Earth news broadcasts, you know who they are. Hunter was so charismatic he made space travel exciting again. Interest had picked up, of course, in the ten years we had started sharing technology with them, but a single figure on which to center a media campaign helped a lot. AJ Foster graduated from college at age 17, and immediately went for aeronautics. Lt. Nick Bristow was Hunter's personal pick for co-pilot. A more exciting crew couldn't have been picked if Primus himself had done the choosing

The first jump was a success. They reached their destination- the space surrounding the star Sirius A, the brightest star visible form earth. The ship sent a probe back to Earth telling us that the jump was a success, and they were observing a strange light on the other side of the star. It was evidently in orbit around the star and was passing out of sight. The crew elected to follow it around the star to study it some more, but all agreed to keep their distance.

The image they sent back was of Sirius A; the light was passing out of sight and though still visible, it made the star look like it had a lump on the side.

Light doesn't have mass. Light can't orbit a star. Whatever this was, there was something at the core of it that the star could capture in its gravitational pull. How could the scientists in the crew- scratch that- how could any human being with even a modicum of curiosity choose NOT to follow?

But that was the last we heard from them.

Perceptor was one of our many scientists who was involved in the project. When he heard about this, and learned that Optimus Prime had appointed me the leader of the expedition to find out what the hell happened, he went straight to me. His need to know is overpowering sometimes; this new phenomenon whet his taste buds, so to speak, but there was a more personal stake: Galen Braxis was a close personal friend of his.

So Perceptor is my science officer on this voyage. We have no idea what we're in for, so Warpath and Powerglide are also coming- if we need a flyer, we have one, and if we need some heavy artillery, we have that too. Bumblebee is on board as my communications officer, and Hot Rod is my second in command. Right now the Metroplex project is in high gear, and most of our engineers are on Earth, and we need plenty of warriors to guard the whole thing. It would be understatement of the year to say I'm less than thrilled with being saddled with the kid, even if he's shown potential from time to time when he thinks no one's looking.

We're preparing to depart as I write this.

Nightbeat looked around at his crew. A more motley crew for this mission couldn't have been chosen, but he didn't care- he trusted any and all of them with his life.

"Coming out of hyperspeed 40 AUs from Sirius A," said Perceptor.

"OK, the light show should be within visual range in 20 seconds," said Hot Rod. Perceptor brought it on screen. The view was an extreme close up of the edge of Sirius' disc- so close up it was barely round anymore at that range.

And slowly, it came into view- a small bump seeming to grow in the side. And it separated from the star, and they watched as it slowly became more clear as it escaped the glare of Sirius' prominences. It was a simple white irregular mass at this range.

"Magnify," said Nightbeat.

What came on screen them resembled a liquid poured into another before they started to mix, when it would hold a cloudy shape before spreading and fading. It had a few streaks of blue and brown, but for the most part seemed to be little more than a glowing gas cloud. It could easily be mistaken for a nebula if you looked at a picture of it not knowing its true size.

"Distance from Sirius?" asked Nightbeat.

"104 million miles," Perceptor quickly answered.

"Composition?" Nightbeat asked.

After a moment, Perceptor frowned, telling Nightbeat all he needed to know.

"Unknown."

"Any sign of the _Odyssey_?" asked Nightbeat, trying to keep the anxious edge out of his voice.

"None that I can see," answered Perceptor. "The phenomenon seems to be largely gaseous in nature, but it does seem to have a solid core. The cloud is over 500,000 miles across. Whatever is at the center, however, has a mass and diameter roughly equal to Cybertron."

"So there's a planet in that thing?" asked Bumblebee, a little surprised.

"Yes," answered Perceptor. "The conditions inside, though hostile to organic life forms, are still hospitable to our own. It is possible that the ship crashed there, and there is a high probability that they brought it in for a controlled landing and are awaiting rescue on the planet's surface. If they are indeed on the planet's surface, we need to get close enough to receive their transponder signal. The cloud, from what little I can ascertain of its structure, would likely scramble any radio signal, preventing its escape. If we penetrate the cloud, we should be able to hear it, if it is there to hear."

Hot Rod was looking at Perceptor skeptically. Nightbeat knew what he was thinking because the same thought was running through his mind.

iYou're eager to find your friends. You're not a risk taker, but here you are jumping at the possibility that everything will be hunky dory if we enter the mysterious cloud whose composition is unknown just because of your need to know./i

"We'll send a radio probe," Nightbeat finally decided. "We'll track its progress. If it doesn't fry when it hits the cloud, if it doesn't crash, we'll proceed."

Every shuttle had a complement of probes that carried messages through hyperspeed, lest a message from Earth to Cybertron take decades to reach their destination because of the limitations of the speed of light.

Bumblebee launched one, a small bullet shaped object rocketing towards the cloud and the planet within.

"It will make contact with the cloud in 30 seconds," Perceptor said.

The group watched its progress anxiously, their eyes glued to their respective monitors.

"So what are we gonna do if BANG POW the probe blows up or somethin' asked Warpath hesitantly.

"Shut your barrel and wait like the rest of us," Nightbeat said, barely paying any attention to him.

"Entering the cloud in 5…4…3…2…" Perceptor began, and all watched as the probe plunged into the cloud and continued on its course without incident.

"Guess that settles it," said Hot Rod grimly.

"Hold onto your butts," said Nightbeat, gesturing for them to advance.

And they watched as the cloud slowly grew larger and larger, until it dominated their field of vision.

Hot Rod noted with some amusement that Powerglide was clenching his arm rests tightly.

"We have entered the cloud," Perceptor finally said. "We'll be touching down on the planet's surface in 1 minute. I think we shall finally have a clear view any second now-"

A clear view of a pulsating ball of light. As the outer layer of the cloud was breached, the planet

"We're not landing on that!" said Nightbeat. "Turn us arou-

And the glowing orb flashed, blinding them all.

"I'm losing control!" yelled Bumblebee, just as they all felt the shuttle accelerating. "We're going down!"

As he said this, the light faded, and the view became that of a glistening, metallic planetary surface.

"Controls aren't responding!" yelled Hot Rod

"Gee, thanks for backing me up there, buddy," cried Bumblebee.

"We're going to smack into the planet like bugs on a windshield!" screamed Nightbeat.

"We're going to die!" cried Perceptor. "If only I hadn't been so-"

"We're not going to die! Divert everything you can to the forward shields!" yelled Nightbeat, grabbing Hot Rod by the shoulders. "We'll try and pull up at the last minute- leave power for that."

"But that could overload them and-"

"Just do it!" screamed Nightbeat. "Maybe we can bounce off the surface instead of smashing into it!"

The crew was quick to comply, and almost instantly, just as Nightbeat could start ot make out surface details, he heard a faint hum over the roar of the engines and the rattling of the hull as all redundant systems powered down, darkening the cabin.

All were imitating Powerglide, gripping their arm rests so tightly they were on the verge of being ripped form the seats.

"I've got power!" yelled Bumblebee, and with that the crew felt a lurch as the shuttle attempted to pull up. There was no stopping the crash now, but now they had a chance of there being something left when they hit.

"THIS IS IT!" screamed Nightbeat over the now deafening roar of the ship. "BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

And the world went dark.

Nightbeat came back to the world of the living with a feeling, before his optics came back online. He was being lifted, and he could hear a faint growl that became clearer as his audio sensors readjusted to their proper settings.

"- not ready for this," came Hot Rod's voice. "I need you alive!"

And his audios finally snapped back on, and his body a second later. Slowly rising from his command chair, where Hot Rod had placed him, he saw his crew was either awake and groggy, or slowly coming out of it.

Everything in the walls and ceiling that could have come loose had. Panels, wiring. But a few instrument panels snapped back to life.

_Thank Primus for small favors_ thought Nightbeat _Now we'll have our equipment to confirm for us we're probably screwed_.

But Nightbeat would never had said that aloud if Megatron himself was torturing him. He knew he had to put on a brave face for his crew.

"Is everyone OK?" he asked. And was met with various weak affirmatives.

"To answer your first question before you ask it," said Hot Rod. "Our guidance and propulsion systems are busted. We might be able to fix them if we had time, but we can't know that until we crack this ship open and look."

"Yeah, we can look inside," said Powerglide. "But look outside!"

And they saw a strangely familiar sight: glistening metal towers, ramps and roads that sloped hundreds of feet into the air, it was almost like…

But they had to be sure. The crew silently followed Nightbeat as he tentatively opened the starboard port, and slowly made his way down the ramp.

They stepped out to see that the nose of the shuttle was over the edge of a huge structure whose walls they had ploughed through like a bull through paper mache.

Looking down they saw that the structure went down seemingly for miles, like many of the buildings and skyscrapers on their homeworld that extended nearly to the planetary core.

"I'd swear we were on Cybertron before the war," said Nightbeat, who had only seen such a thing in the images stored in Iacon's historical archives.

"I would not dismiss the however faint possibility that that may indeed be what has transpired," noted Perceptor over. "We did enter an unknown phenomenon that for all we know, could have been a temporal rift, after all."

"Yeah, but what are the chances it would take us home, out of all the space and all of the planets in the universe?" asked Bumblebee.

"This place looks like it could hold a bustling population," said Nightbeat. "But look at how quiet it is."

"Too quiet?" asked Hot Rod with a half serious grin.

"And the sky's a little too clear," added Bumblebee, pointing up.

The Autobots had to crane their heads to see past the overpowering architecture of this strange world, but they saw what appeared to be a normal night sky- just stars, pinpoints of light amid infinite blackness.

"I know we sure as hell didn't break up that cloud!" exclaimed Hot Rod.

"The planet flashed," said Nightbeat. "We don't know what we're dealing with. For all we know some unknown force could have done that. That might have been what the flash was- dissipating the cloud. I think we need to do a quick recon. Hot Rod, Bumblebee, you're with me."

"Wait!" said Warpath, leaping to his feet. "You know I've got BOOM KABLAM the most firepower!

"If there's danger out there, I doubt it's the kind that a bigger explosion can solve," explained Hot Rod.

"We're all well armed," explained Nightbeat. "Whatever power could break up that cloud, whatever could light up this planet like a Christmas tree isn't going to be bothered by our little pea shooters. We need three things: We need to get some idea of what's out there in case we're stuck here, we need the shuttle, and we need to protect it while its being repaired. Warpath, you're more than equipped to handle things here. With the three of you together and the shuttle's outer defense system, I think you guys can handle things here while we look around."

"Perceptor, we'll contact you when we learn something," said Nightbeat. "I think for now it may be best to maintain radio silence. Just keep at it, and don't hesitate to call me for an update on the repairs. But no chit-chat"

To his surprise, Perceptor agreed, nodding morosely.

_I wonder if he's thinking his "need to know" almost got us killed and he'd better ignore it in the future for all our sakes._

"Our scanners are down," said Perceptor. "I'll start my search for the _Odyssey_ the second we have them back online."

"Right," said Nightbeat. "Wish each other luck, then let's move out."

The fact that this strange world existed was the remarkable thing to the Autobots.

But visually, it was rather unremarkable to them. It could have been home, if they had no frame of reference that this was an alien world.

The trio slowly made their way through the city, sparing occasional glances at the shuttle until it was beyond their sight.

20 minutes of trekking through virtually identical streets, and nothing happened. Until Bumblebee suddenly whirled, pointing his weapon at a seemingly empty alleyway.

"I saw something!" he said.

All four Autobots aimed their weapons down the passage he was looking at, but it was from above that the sign of life came.

"I wouldn't worry about that, my friends!" called a voice above them.

They all turned in time to see a gray robot leap down from a balcony a few levels above them and crash down, landing in a crouching position. He was a little smaller than Hot Rod, with a form somewhat resembling a Decepticon seeker. His head was smooth and round, and what appeared to be yellow goggles covered distinctly human-like eyes.

"I've heard enough to know that we need not fear you," said the robot. "Many of us are watching you right now. But know that you need not fear us, either."

With that, his eyes blinked a bright blue rapidly, and more robots started to pour out of their hiding places throughout the city. Walls opened where a door wasn't visible before, some stepped out of the shadows, and soon the Autobots were surrounded, but none seemed to be armed, and none made a threatening gesture their way.

"Greetings, strangers. I am Leader-1, the supreme commander of Gobotron, the world on which you now stand. We bid you welcome."


End file.
